ADA Compliance

It is therefore in these businesses’ best interest to proactively take those steps that are feasible, reasonable and appropriate in order to bring their websites into compliance with the ADA. But how can they do so when the DOJ has not yet issued its guidelines for making websites accessible to disabled individuals? Plaintiffs lawyers, a number of courts and the DOJ itself have all accepted or relied on standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium—the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 level AA (WCAG 2.0 AA)—as being the de facto standards for website accessibility. Another set of standards that is less rigorous than WCAG 2.0 AA, but is also frequently cited, was promulgated by the U.S. Access Board, a federal agency that develops policies for other federal agencies regarding website access (the Section 508 Standards). Both sets of standards provide detailed technical requirements for making websites accessible to individuals with disabilities. Moreover, there are a number of outside consultants that businesses can hire to help determine what steps should be taken and what technologies, coding and functions should be added to websites to improve their accessibility. Taking these steps will obviously involve some cost, and a business may not be able to afford to correct every access issue with a particular website. However, there are several ­fundamental changes and measures that can be carried out to make a site more compliant and reduce a business’ exposure in the event a demand or lawsuit is asserted.